Epic Fail or Epic Win?

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It’s impossible for me to believe as I watch Christi set up the lights, put down the pink backdrop and pull out the pink polka dotted #1 that my precious little Annika Baby has been here for a whole year. This little one who scared the poop out of all of us by making her somewhat dramatic entrance into the world 6 weeks early weighing in at a whopping 4.5 pounds is now a whole 16 pounds of crawling, standing, climbing, babbling, analyzing everything one-year-old.

Back in February, right after I had made a cute little yellow rubber duckie smash cake for Tanner’s first birthday, Christi asked me if I would make Annika’s smash cake. I was so excited—Okay, what kind of cake does our little Annika Baby want? A Monkey Cake. Ok, Google my friend, help me out with this. I Googled, Binged and even Yahoo-ed but alas there are no easy as 1-2-3 monkey cake molds to purchase on the internet. Ok, in an effort at full disclosure there is one but frankly it was basically monkey ugly and therefore not cute enough for my Annika Baby’s first birthday cake. But this Grandma was not deterred. I spent days looking up pictures of other people’s monkey cakes and finally came up with a plan. My first prototype scored major points in the cute department but had a couple of issues not the least of which was the fact that the poor little monkey’s head kept falling off and its tail looked more like the aftermath of a bodily function instead of a cute little furry thing that facilitates swinging from branch to branch. Back to the internet I went and found some great tips on a website written by a fellow grandma. Armed with my new grandma certified knowledge the next prototype was a definite go. We now have a wonderfully cute 3-D monkey cake for Annika’s birthday.

From the day the first prototype sat on my kitchen counter with its head plopped off to one side, I have been envisioning Annika’s encounter with the Monkey Cake. In my lemonade commercial world she grabs it up and squeals with delight as she shoves huge bites into her mouth.

But alas, this Grandma is reminded once again that she does not live in a lemonade commercial. My little Annika Baby sat on the floor in her fluffy pink tutu, bare from the waist up with what little hair she has pulled up in a pink bow creating a splay atop her cute little head. In her very Annika Baby way, she carefully analyzed the little monkey cake with complete disregard for the countless hours her Grandma had put into its creation and ultimately deemed it to be utterly disgusting. The second her hand made contact with the monkey’s cold squishy frosting she recoiled in what can only be explained as 1 year old baby disgust. She attempted to touch it a few times coming away with a little bit of chocolate frosting on her fingers. Each time she pulled her hand away shaking it vigorously to remove the filth that had gotten on it. Kenny, sure that the sweet yumminess of sugar would entice her, lopped off a bit of frosting and put it in her mouth. But nope, this was met with an even more disgusted face and an instant removal of the foulness from her mouth.

Ok, so the moment did not go the way my lemonade commercial imagination thought it would. Some people may even go as far as to say the Monkey cake should be considered an epic fail. But in this Grandma’s world, the cake was awesome (especially when you consider it was make by an accountant) and Annika’s reaction to it was priceless. The goal was to make a memory to cherish forever. On this count, we have an epic win.